


Turnabout of the Moth

by Masura



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Work In Progress, updated on an approximately weekly basis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 09:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19827163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masura/pseuds/Masura
Summary: The day has come when Ladybug and Chat have finally defeated Hawkmoth... However, the villain escapes amid their final clash. Can defense attorney Phoenix Wright defend the man accused of being Paris's most wanted? Or will a certain prosecutor finally have her win in court?"When all the facades are stripped away, tell me, Chat Noir, who do you see?"-Turnabout of The Moth, ???





	1. Prologue

A lone claw and a flash of pink light conclude their fight to end Paris’s nightmare in a dimly lit purple room. Thunder crackles outside, a sea of smoke engulfs the combatants as something falls to the floor with a clatter. Soon, there are only two in the room. They find a purple broach, their sole prize, the cure to everything that was wrong with Paris. So it begins.


	2. Superheroes?!

Phoenix Wright was enjoying the last part of his stay in London, England in relative calm. He and his assistant, one Maya Fey, had spent the better part of their journey solving puzzles and fighting court cases in the town of Labyrinthia and were due some much-needed rest and relaxation.

That’s how the defense attorney found himself gorging on a dinner of burgers with a side of fish and chips accompanied by Maya when he received one of _those_ phone calls. The kind of phone call that portends a really hard case.

He reached into his pocket when he felt the device buzzing, setting down his meal. He flipped open the blue phone only to find that the caller was simply listed as unknown with no listed phone number. Against his better judgement, he answered it, using some of his precious few international minutes.

“Hello, this is Phoenix Wright speaking,” the defense attorney greeted, prompting the unknown caller to respond.

“Mr. Wright, good!” a voice on the other end hurriedly exclaimed, clearly out of breath. “I’ll keep this short. I’ve heard that you’re in London and I really need someone with your level of expertise. Honestly, things are a mess over here,” the caller lamented.

“I’m flattered, but would you mind introducing yourself?” Phoenix replied, already wondering how this person had heard of him and hoped for him to tackle a (presumably) international case, no less!

“Right! You can call me Chat Noir,” the voice informed as the caller seemed to regain his lost breath. “I realize it’s not much of a name to give, but I’m calling as one of the superheroes of Paris” the caller informed. “Anyway, the defendant in this case is-”

“Hold on. Superheroes of Paris?” the defense attorney questioned, suddenly resenting his decision to take the call, which was looking more and more like a prank.

“Huh, I know we superheroes don’t do too much PR, but I’d like to think we’re at least somewhat known outside of Paris,” the hero contemplated, somewhat surprised by the defense attorney’s lack of knowledge regarding himself and his partner in crimefighting. “If you want to know more about me, you can always check out Ladyblog.fr, it’s a fan site about us heroes,” the person who identified themselves as Chat Noir explained.

“Sure thing, _Chat Noir_ ,” Phoenix replied, his doubt seeping into each of his words.

Suddenly, Maya perked up. “Nick! Did you read that article in the hotel about Chat Noir too?!” she excitedly asked. “I didn’t know old people like you were on top of all the new superhero stuff,” she offered as a backhanded compliment before the defense attorney could respond. “Apparently he and his partner Ladybug are like a real-life Steel Samurai and Pink Princess duo! Pretty cool, right?!” the spirit medium excitedly questioned, flabbergasting the attorney.

The voice on the phone resumed its plea. “In any case, someone close to me has been caught up in a large amount of trouble, and I really need some help,” the supposed superhero asked. “As much as I hate to admit it, now that the police are investigating, the ball is out of my court. Can I ask you for help?” the superhero earnestly plead, trace amounts of uneasy emotions creeping into his voice.

“I’m not opposed to taking the case,” Phoenix decided after a moment of silence. “However, you’re in Paris, right? It might be hard for me to meet with the defendant to plan my defense for another few days,” the attorney informed.

“About that, I’m prepared to offer you a commission of ten thousand euros plus travel expenses if you can get over here immediately. It’s kind of a national emergency, and you happened to be the best and closest defense attorney I could find” the superhero sheepishly informed.

Phoenix nearly dropped the phone. A client was actually being forthcoming about paying him?! He would need to seriously consider the pros and cons of relocating his law offices to Europe if this was how business was conducted over there. “That certainly changes things,” the lawyer amicably informed. “Before I come over though, could I receive some conformation as to your identity as Chat Noir. It would be incredibly unfortunate if this turned out to be a prank call,” Phoenix bluntly informed as both he and his wallet both silently prayed that the call was genuine.

“Completely understandable. I’ll try to get a reporter to let me make a statement from TVi within the hour. You should be able to access the broadcast from their website if local channels don’t offer that station,” the superhero agreed. “We’ll talk more about the case after that. Please make travel arrangements as soon as possible Mr. Wright. I really need your help,” the voice implored as the line went dead. Phoenix set down his phone and picked up his burger as he prepared for Maya’s onslaught of questions. “No rest for the defense attorneys, I suppose,” he chuckled to himself. Apparently, his trials and tribulations weren’t over just yet.

After he and Maya finished their meal, which took well over an hour, Phoenix accessed the internet from his phone and looked for TVi's website. There wasn’t much harm in it, he reasoned. If his client was authentic, then he had a new case on his hands. Otherwise, he could go back to his vacation and relax.

As the laws of the universe dictated, he couldn’t just have a relaxing vacation. When he arrived at TVi’s main webpage, he found that it boasted a brand-new announcement from Chat Noir informing its viewers that he had just sought a defense attorney for someone called Gabriel Agreste in the interest of securing a fair trial for him. Phoenix grimaced as he heard Maya squeal in delight from behind him, clearly having read the video’s caption over his shoulder if she hadn’t simply watched the whole thing. It appeared that the Ace Attorney had another case on his hands, no less weird and zany than any of his other ones from the get-go.


	3. An unexpected Deal

It was a cold and rainy night when Chat Noir made his way towards the detention center. It was the day after he and his partner had defeated Hawkmoth. Well, defeated wasn’t quite the right word. They had simply seized his miraculous, the man himself was still at large, at least in Chat Noir’s mind. The police force of Paris had made up their minds that Hawkmoth was none other than Gabriel Agreste, and that was something that Chat Noir couldn’t let become any more official than it already had. He would ensure that Gabriel Agreste was defended at any cost.

Chat Noir explained as much to the man himself in the detention center, promising to stand by him and even go as far as handling the commission for an attorney. The man was bewildered at first but accepted the superhero’s assistance given one condition, that the superhero requested Phoenix Wright to defend as his attorney.

Gabriel Agreste saw the superhero’s offer as both ironic and surprising, though not unwelcome. At that point, he needed all the help he could get. The Parisian lawyers he tried to reach out to wouldn’t even touch him. So why not go for an American on a long-shot? The alternative was a court-appointed lawyer who would be all but guaranteed to throw the case, the man thought, ruefully ruminating over his prospects. He was further surprised when Chat Noir readily agreed to his condition and thanked him for his time. Gabriel Agreste shook his head. He had just sent the hero out to commission the Turnabout King of California. Getting him to Europe would be hard enough, let alone getting him to defend a case with charges ranging from mass psychological abuse, to attempted murder, to even terrorism. Gabriel shuddered. One thing was quite clear to him at the moment. Whoever was officially found guilty of being Hawkmoth would have much to answer for.

Fortunately for Chat Noir, the hero found that Phoenix Wright was, in fact, participating in an international exchange of attorneys and was currently in London. After calling the aforementioned man, Chat Noir was hopeful that the attorney would take on the case. That hope brought him to TVi’s news station, where he bargained with network officials to make an announcement declaring his involvement in the legal process. It was a half-hour after making that announcement that he found Ladybug waiting for him outside of the station.

“What were you thinking?!” the red superheroine furiously questioned. “Why are you helping Hawkmoth?!” she shouted at her partner with a betrayed look in her eyes.

“I’m afraid we disagree on that key fact, My Lady. I believe that Gabriel Agreste is innocent. He has to be,” Chat Noir coldly asserted, unmoved by Ladybug’s inquisition.

“Why is that? We fought Hawkmoth in the Agreste mansion of all places. His lair was in the Agreste Mansion! How can he not be Hawkmoth?” Ladybug demanded, staring red-hot knives at the black-clad superhero.

“Why not his son, Adrien Agreste?” Chat Noir fired back without hesitation, his unusually stoic voice like an icy bullet to Ladybug’s ears.

“What?” she asked in a subdued whisper, the fire suddenly gone from her words.

“I said why not Adrien Agreste? Why can’t he be Hawkmoth. Go on, I’m waiting,” the superhero baited, exploiting his partner’s defensiveness of the model to shift the conversation.

“He just couldn’t… He’s not like that!” Ladybug passionately defended.

“You’ve answered your own question,” Chat Noir informed. “If we’re allowed to say that people aren’t ‘like that,’ then I can say the same about Gabriel Agreste. Sure, he can come off as somewhat anti-social and rude at times, but the man’s hardly a terrorist,” Chat defended, hoping to convince Ladybug as much as he had already convinced himself.

“Anyway, I get that you don’t like the police attention on Adrien, neither do I, to be honest. But don’t think that you have to vilify his father to help the kid. There could be other explanations,” the hero attempted to persuade his partner.

“For your sake, I hope you’re right,” a tired Ladybug acquiesced. “In your announcement to the public, you said that you wanted a fair trial… I’ll do my best to deliver,” Ladybug ominously warned as she walked away from her partner.

“Ladybug, what do you mean by that?” Chat worriedly probed.

“Isn’t it obvious? If you’re trying to make sure that Gabriel Agreste has a fair defense, then I’ll try to make sure that he has a _fair_ prosecution,” Ladybug informed, putting weight on the word 'fair' that just seemed unfair to the cat-themed hero.

“My Lady-” Chat began before he was interrupted.

“I’ll see you in court, Chat Noir,” Ladybug declared as she threw her yoyo out into the night sky. Those were the last words he heard from her that day.

Leaving a clearly unsettled Chat Noir in her wake, Ladybug made a single phone call, pulling her phone and one other thing out of her pocket. The phone rang once, it rang twice, in the middle of the third ring, a voice responded.

“Hello?” a male voice responded from the other side of the call.

“Mayor Bourgeois, this is Ladybug. I’d like to offer my services as a witness to the prosecution in Gabriel Agreste’s upcoming trial,” she succinctly stated as she stared menacingly at the weird purple light coming from the object in her hand that was at once both a curse and her motivation to move forward.

“Of course! I’m sure the prosecutor in charge would be more than happy to have you!” the mayor amicably agreed. “Since this is a matter of great national importance, we plan to have the trial quickly. Specifically, we plan to have it three days from now. I imagine the prosecutor would appreciate it if you could drop by the office tomorrow to introduce yourself and organize your testimony,” the mayor informed.

“Thank you, mayor Bourgeois, I’ll do just that,” Ladybug agreed with a determined smirk on her face as she ended the call. “Hawkmoth, I’m going to find you and take you down once and for all!” the superheroine resolved as she slipped the butterfly miraculous back into her suit pocket. Her fight had only just begun.


End file.
